Briefing Paper on torture and ill-treatment in Tibet (2004)

This briefing paper has been compiled to assist the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in his preparation for his June 2004 visit to China.

It evaluates China’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), relative to Tibet, and updates the April 2000 paper of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) on the issue of torture.

TCHRD submits that, despite continuing Chinese denials, torture of Tibetan prisoners remains a regular occurrence in Chinese administered prisons.

Due to increased vigilance on the border and restrictions on the outflow of information, it has become more difficult in recent years to obtain detailed information from Tibet. However, the work of organisations such as TCHRD, the Tibetan Information Network, Amnesty International and other human rights groups, as well as government agencies and the Special Rapporteur, provides sufficient material to confirm the systemic prevalence of torture in the Chinese jail system.

The atmosphere of fear and intimidation which now prevails has given less scope for getting reliable information out of the region. The atmosphere of fear has been described most succinctly by a senior monk, now in exile, “These days, when people are arrested often nobody knows except the immediate family, and sometimes they font even know for sometime. Once all of us in a monastery would hear very quickly if a monk from our monastery died in prison or after release, but now the families are generally too scared to talk about it, are often warned not to do so by prison officials. So, it sometimes took months for the news to reach us when this happened.”

TCHRD acknowledges reports of a decline in the rate of political imprisonment of Tibetans from 2000 until 2002, but notes that the decline appears to have halted in the last two years and there remain a significant number of political detainees as well as ongoing reports of illegal treatment, particularly during arrest and detention.

In addition to the continuing practice of torture, TCHRD has serious concerns about the continued failure of China to tighten its legislative framework, as recommended by the Committee against Torture, including:

• incorporating a definition of torture that fully complies with the Convention’s definition in its own legislation;
• changing the current legal provisions with respect to suspect access to legal representation; and
• removing China’s Article 28 Declaration refusing to acknowledge the competence of the Committee.

This briefing paper discusses some of the legislative steps yet to be put in place, documents the practices of Chinese law enforcement officials, including types of torture used, and sets out a number of recent cases to support the view that China remains non-compliant with the CAT.

It ends with a series of recommendations for the Special Rapporteur to consider in his discussions with the Chinese government.

Please click here to read and download the briefing paper on torture and ill-treatment in Tibet